Commission names sexual ethics coordinator
The Rev. Darryl Stephens
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A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
Feb. 11, 2009
In the eyes of the United Methodist agency charged with promoting
its female membership, institutional sexism and sexual misconduct are
not just “women’s issues.”
That is one reason why the United Methodist Commission on the Status
and Role of Women has hired a clergyman to coordinate efforts on sexual
ethics. The position is a new one, both for the commission and the
denomination, according to M. Garlinda Burton, the commission’s chief
executive.
The Rev. Darryl Stephens, currently a visiting assistant professor
of Christian social ethics and Methodist studies at United
Methodist-related Candler School of Theology, will begin working part
time in March for the commission and start on a full-time basis on
April 27. He is an ordained deacon in the denomination’s Texas Annual
Conference.
The plan, Burton explained, is to create a “strategic, coordinated
and theologically solid program” for sexual ethics, focusing on
prevention, intervention and education.
Stephens’ duties will include the creation of training resources
specific to The United Methodist Church and its clergy and lay
leadership; development and evaluation of policies and procedures
within annual conferences and church-related entities regarding sexual
misconduct complaints; and coordination of intra-agency resources on
the prevention and just resolution of such complaints.
Burton believes Stephens will bring “a fresh perspective” on how to
understand, prevent and address sexual misconduct by church leaders.
“His grounding in Christian ethics and gender issues brings a needed
dimension to our notion of what it means to honor all people as sacred
and reduce the exploitation of the vulnerable,” she said.
In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Stephens
explained that Christian ethics can be compartmentalized into personal,
professional or social ethics and sexual ethics crosses into all three
of those areas. “Sexual ethics is deeply personal; is, of course, very
relevant to professional boundaries and behavior…and sexual ethics is
also a social issue. Our society is constructed with gender roles,” he
said.
He pointed to the “Safe Sanctuaries” program for children and youth
as a positive step the church has taken to address sexual ethics
concerns. The program establishes appropriate boundaries and protocols
“that will really help ensure the safety of children and youth,” he
added.
“What we are lacking…is an equivalent degree of awareness and
recognition of appropriate sexual boundaries and rules for adult
relationships involving clergy,” Stephens said. “At the heart of this
is the essential power and balance between a professional and someone
seeking that professional’s help.”
The role of the clergyperson is to recognize the degree of trust
involved in that relationship. “When sex enters a pastoral
relationship, it’s a violation of trust, it’s a violation of power and
boundaries,” he noted. “It’s not an issue of two consenting adults.”
Stephens, 40, grew up in Atlanta and lived in Texas for 15 years,
where he earned a bachelor’s degree at Rice University, taught physics
and chemistry, and graduated with a master of divinity degree from
United Methodist-related Perkins School of Theology in 2001. He
returned to the Atlanta area that year to teach and study at Candler
School of Theology, where he received his doctorate in 2006.
His wife, Myka Kennedy Stephens, is a deaconess candidate with the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and will be commissioned in
April. They have two children, Zeke, 3, and Cecily, 11 months old.
Stephens, who calls himself a “committed” ethicist, has devoted
considerable time to the examination of the denomination’s Social
Principles and co-founded a Wesleyan/Methodist Ethics Group in 2008
through the Society of Christian Ethics. His doctoral dissertation was
entitled “A Witness of Words: The United Methodist Social Principles as
Moral Discourse and Institutional Practice.”
He believes his new position with the commission will allow him “to
continue much of that work in a way that will make a huge difference in
the lives of people in the pews and in the pulpit.”
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Commission on the Status and Role of Women
UM Sexual Ethics
Safe Sanctuaries |